JUDGMENT DAY: The FISA MEMO has been released and Heads May Roll

True to the promise made, the infamous “FISA Memo” compiled by Rep. Devin Nunes regarding the FBI and Department of Justice obtaining a super secret FISA warrant to surveil members of now President Trump’s campaign staff has been released. Those who have followed the story will not be surprised in any way by the findings. However, it is still shocking to see the truth outlined in black and white.

A dossier on President Trump was compiled in the summer of 2016. It was financed (paid for) by the Democratic National Committee with the Hillary for President campaign, and assembled by one Christopher Steele, a former British agent, and FBI informant, for a Washington, D.C. law firm. Andrew McCabe, late of the FBI, testified that without this document, no FISA warrants would ever have been granted. Bill Preistrap of the FBI counterintelligence unit testified that very little of the dossier itself could be verified.

That dossier was the basis used to get the FISA court to grant powers to surveil Carter Page, a Trump campaign volunteer. The financing arrangement of the dossier and its origination was never disclosed to the FISA court. The judge had no idea who was behind it when the surveillance was granted.

The requests were signed off by both FBI and Justice officials, all familiar names: James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Loretta Lynch, Rod Rosenstein and Sally Yates. There were three extensions of 90 days after the initial

The memo outlines how the dossier came to be, and how it was used to hoodwink a FISA judge into granting an illegal wiretap, essentially. The sole purpose of the operation, that included a whole host of characters who have been in the news of late, was to keep Donald Trump from being elected president of the United States. It was assumed that Hillary Clinton would win the election and all of these actions would never be known by the people.

There is, of course, more in the memo itself about all of the players and their animus toward Trump and the movement he spearheaded. Not only that, but the memo does not include all of the information that the House Intelligence Committee has collected. This is just a summary of the evidence in one specific incident.

But still…it does prove that there was a conspiracy within the government at very high levels to actively work against a candidate for president of the United States. In that regard, the players involved turned the power of surveillance into a political weapon, a bastardization of its intended use as a crime-fighting tool.

About the Author

A resident of Flyover Country, Cultural Limits is a rare creature in American Conservatism - committed to not just small government, Christianity and traditional social roles, but non-profits and high arts and culture. Watching politics, observing human behavior and writing are all long-time interests.
In her other life, CL writes romance novels under her nom de plume, Patricia Holden (@PatriciaHoldenAuthor on Facebook), and crochets like a mad woman (designs can be found on Facebook @BohemianFlairCrochet and on Pinterest on the Bohemian Flair Crochet board).
In religion, CL is Catholic; in work, the jill of all trades when it comes to fundraising software manipulation and event planning; in play, a classically trained soprano and proud citizen of Cardinal Nation, although, during hockey season, Bleeds Blue. She lives in the Mid-Mississippi River Valley with family and two cute and charming tyrants...make that toy dogs.